Why are standard world maps considered to be inaccurate?

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I remember being told this in high school and being totally confused. My teacher told us that a standard map, or even a globe, is inaccurate. She explained why but I didn’t understand. Why is this?

In: Technology

25 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A globe is definitely accurate.

The standard maps are inaccurate because the world is round, and maps are flat. There’s no way to project a spherical map on a flat surface without stretching or tearing parts of the map. In the former case you get maps like the [Mercator projection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection) which makes areas closer to the poles huge, and in the latter case you get odd things like [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goode_homolosine_projection).

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